Ratings9
Average rating3.7
Guy Gavriel Kay creates a work of intricate richness, brilliantly bringing to life Viking, Anglo Saxon and Celtic cultures as they balance on the knife-edge of change in a turbulent age.
Reviews with the most likes.
I really wanted to like this book more. The good part of the novel is that there are asides into the lives of common folk that are quite interesting. The bad part is that these asides are sometimes more interesting than the main cast of characters.
It's never a good sign when an author spends a lot of prose on exploring meta-narrative. It becomes a bit of a navel-gazing exercise. Still Guy Kay is otherwise quite adept at setting and telling a tale that is relatively small in scale compared to his previous highlights.
Decent read, but not my favorite GGK book he's put out. My interest in what was going on came and went depending on what was going on and who was being featured. The ending felt a little flat and unrewarding, especially considering the buildup. Glad I read it, probably won't read it again anytime soon.
This was my first GGK book and wow, its was fantastic! Set in a anglo-saxon/celtic/norse world that has many things plucked from real history and given a fantasy tweak. With many characters who would be recognised by other names in our own history, King Alfred the Great, Ivar the Boneless, potentially King Arthur and Merlin (might be stretching on that one).
The characters were great and I love any book that has a setting like this one so it was always going to be a winner for me!
Will definitely be tackling more GGK!
4.5 ⭐️